Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals

The MSO said that in the past year or so, it has more than doubled its catalog of live streaming networks on the Xfinity TV Go app, and more than 30 percent of Xfinity TV customers are using TV Everywhere monthly.

Comcast Labs has forged a partnership with startup accelerator Boomtown to build an Internet of Things (IoT) lab in Boomtown’s hometown of Boulder, Colo. The companies said the IoT lab will be one of the first in nation when it launches during “Boulder Startup Week” in May.

Frontier Communications has wrapped up the first phase of its broadband network upgrade in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. Frontier said the upgrade doubled the available bandwidth en route to enabling faster broadband speeds while also providing network redundancy for its commercial and residential subscribers in the area.

Money-losing Sony will spin off its video-and-sound business into a separate company and shrink its headquarters as part of a three-year turnaround plan to speed up decision-making and become profitable again. The company is targeting an operating profit of 500 billion yen ($4.2 billion) and a 10 percent return on equity for the fiscal year through March 2018.

TWC will gradually introduce faster broadband speeds throughout its entire system in and around San Antonio. The upgrade will also include an expansion of Wi-Fi hotspots around the city, building on an existing constellation of hotspots in businesses.

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) announced Tuesday afternoon that Daniel Howard was named to the newly created staff position of SCTE Fellow. Howard joined SCTE five years ago as the organization’s first chief technology officer.

SeaChange International has hired Dave Ulmer as senior vice president & general manager for its Asia Pacific operations. The company is looking to burnish its multi-screen credentials by getting more involved in the mobile video market.

The patent describes a method for identifying dynamic advertising inventory and defining attributes of the ad, such as ownership, length and interactivity. The company believes the patent applicable regardless of which ad decisioning system or video delivery platform is used.

AT&T is offering its GigaPower service to select areas of Kansas City where it now competes against Google Fiber’s 1-gig service. Time Warner Cable is also ramping up a 300 Mbps down, 20 Mbps tier in Kansas City via its all-digital TWC Maxx upgrade.

Brooklyn union workers at Cablevision System Corp. have voted to ratify a two-year contract with the company. Communications Workers of America Local 1109 said the labor agreement was ratified by a strong margin Saturday night. More than 260 workers are covered by the agreement, which includes wages increases and better health and pension benefits.

Virgin Media has thrown down the gauntlet against BT by announcing a five-year, $4.62 billion build out of its broadband network. Virgin Media has generally topped BT’s speeds in cities and towns across the UK where they compete against each other, but BT has enjoyed a larger broadband footprint.

Shaw Communications announced this week that it was closing its call centers in Calgary and Edmonton while also closing part of its operations in Kelowna. All told, 1,600 employees in those call centers will have to either re-locate, accept severance packages or take on new jobs at their current locations.

While the final numbers are still pending, ABI Research said in a report that the worldwide pay-TV market was expected to grow 5 percent in 2013 while topping 924.4 million subscribers. On a global scale, IPTV is the driving force behind the increased in subscribers.